


A Nasty City

by weekend_conspiracy_theorist



Series: Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend [1]
Category: Catwoman (Comics), DCU, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, one day potentially to be expanded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 12:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5248220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weekend_conspiracy_theorist/pseuds/weekend_conspiracy_theorist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Golden Glider drops into Gotham with her eyes set on a particular diamond--but Gotham's not the kind of city you can attempt to swindle and not run into complications.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nasty City

**Author's Note:**

> I just needed to write something, and none of the things I've already started seemed appealing, so have a thousand words of Lisa and Selina making small talk when they both try to steal the same diamond
> 
> Lisa is a mix of comics and show canon, as per my usual

Central is a light city. Vibrant, decently quiet, full of glass and steel and well-maintained parks and wide streets. The kind of city where the girl exiting the coffee shop in front of you will hold the door and grin when you thank her. The kind of city where brightly dressed villains are more likely to throw puns than poison gas, where the resident hero spends more time retrieving cats from trees than halting heists.

 

Gotham is a very different kind of city.

 

Lisa knew that before she set foot in the place, of course, had seen the pictures of gargoyles and concrete, had heard the whispers about the Bat and his brood of militant teenage followers. But, Jesus, that didn't mean she was _prepared_ for the thin streets and looming buildings, the thrown back shoulders and hardened gazes of the residents, the thick smells of corruption and gunpowder that seem to hang in the air.

 

Her skin's been crawling since she got here, like there are eyes everywhere, like the Bat already knows who she is and why she's here.

 

(Hint: it's not to admire the Bernoulli Diamond from the other side of the glass.)

 

She takes a deep breath, sets her costume aside—she'd thought it might be fun to breathe a little life into Gotham, operate in the open the way she does in Central, but now that she's here she thinks it might be best to fly under the radar.

 

(Get in, get out, _get out of town_.)

 

She used to be a simple, world class, internationally wanted thief. She can be one again, for a night.

 

***

 

She has the stone _in her hands_ , is just about to tuck it away and scram, and then there's a crack, something dark snakes across her vision, and the diamond's gone.

 

She has her gold gun out in moments, spinning to face whichever Bat brat's caught her as she frantically tries to figure out how they even knew she was here. (She's almost as good at planning heists as Len is and a thousand times better at slipping through laser grids, how on earth _—_ )

And then she sees who her company is, and Lisa's not sure if this is better or worse than being caught by a Bat.

"I probably shouldn't stick around, but I'm _dying_ to know who you are, and you know what they say about cats and curiosity," Catwoman purrs, diamond cradled in one hand and whip dangling idly from the other. She shifts her weight onto one foot, cocking her hip as she tosses her whip over her shoulder, studying Lisa from behind orange lenses.

 

Lisa doesn't lower her gun, but she does rise out of the half-crouch she'd fallen into, brush a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Who am I?" she asks neutrally, shrugging the shoulder that won't jostle her aim. "Just a girl from out of town whose heist you're hijacking."

 

She's not entirely sure how to get her diamond back. Gooping the other thief to the floor would leave her free to hit back with her whip, and gooping her torso to get the whip would mean the gem was a lost cause, unless she wanted to hack it out with her pocket knife. If the gun was more precise then she could have targeted just the one arm or just that side of Catwoman's body—but normally, when she's catching a speedster running at the speed of light, the wide spread is to her advantage.

 

"Out of town is right." Catwoman hums thoughtfully. "What's that accent? Midwestern, maybe one of the Gem Cities?"

 

"Central born and bred," Lisa confirms. "And you're a Gotham girl through and through, I assume?"

 

"I prefer to think of myself as a member of the world community; travel is a favorite pastime." Catwoman gives a smile that's a little too sharp, a little too full of teeth. "Especially on someone else's ill-begotten dime."

 

"Planning to fund your next trip with that little ol' thing?" Lisa channels the bumbling charm of the Flash and injects her voice with as much helpful, polite cheer as she can. "The van Gogh a wing over would get you farther."

 

Catwoman laughs as she snaps her whip back into place at her hip. "That was pathetic."

 

Lisa resists the urge to sigh. "When it comes to unplanned obstacles, I'm more of a 'blow them up' than 'talk it out' kind of girl," she admits, "but too much noise would bring the kind of attention I'm not interested in."

 

Catwoman's lip twitches, a grin that feels like it's at Lisa's expense. "The police in Gotham can be quite a nuisance," she says, voice silky, and Lisa rolls her eyes.

 

"Please give me some credit, darling. I know who the real players are in Gotham—Batman, Robin, the rest of the idiots in body armor and domino masks."

 

"You do your research." Catwoman sounds impressed.

 

"I watch the news," Lisa responds, amused, but Catwoman shakes her head, expression unreadable behind her goggles.

 

"You'd be surprised how many non-locals dismiss the costume crowd." She tilts her head to the side, and Lisa can almost imagine the raised eyebrow that goes along with the motion. "Of course, you _are_ from Central. You're used to your own costumes running around, aren't you?"

 

"I've seen my hometown do-gooder overcome a bit too much, a few too many times, for me to underestimate any member of the Justice League," Lisa says, and she's ashamed that some of her personal frustration with the Flash's meddling slips into her voice. She mentally shakes off the emotion, adds, "And from what I've gathered, your Batman is a much, much nastier piece of work."

 

" _You've_ seen?" Catwoman asks shrewdly, and Lisa waves the gun just a little bit.

 

"Did you think this was store-bought?"

 

Catwoman shrugs. "Hadn't paid it much attention, since you seem in no hurry to use it."

 

"Like I said, I'm not here to draw attention to myself, and this. Well. The gold is a bit of a _calling card_ , isn't it?"

 

Catwoman laughs. "Yes, I suppose so, Glider." She holds the diamond up to the light, admires each face as she turns it slowly, thoughtfully. "Lisa Snart, right? Same one who stole that ruby tennis bracelet in Italy several years back?"

 

Lisa knows that her identity isn't much of a secret (she's been arrested too many times for that), but she's still surprised that Catwoman knows her name off the top of her head. "Fan of my work?"

 

Catwoman turns her face back to Lisa. "Yes, actually. I was disappointed when you went Rogue."

 

Lisa's lip twitches. (Len would have enjoyed that one.) "I don't make nearly as much money, but it's kind of _fun_. I'm not hanging up the skates any time soon."

 

"Was this a one-time return to the life of a cat burglar, then?" Catwoman asks, and there's a tone to her voice that has Lisa lowering the gold gun, raising an eyebrow.

 

"Proposing a team-up, puss?"

 

"Gotham's a nasty city, Glider. It never hurts to have allies." That feral smile creeps across Catwoman's face once more. "Besides, I know a few girls that would just adore you, your theatrics, and your esteem of explosives."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: while I was aware that Bernoulli was a mathematician (actually, there are several famous, related Bernoullis who were mathematicians) when I picked a random name for the diamond, I did NOT realize that there's a mathematical concept called Bernoulli's Diamond until I googled to make sure there wasn't actually a gemstone of the same name


End file.
